Mayor's liaison on crime to leave

Heather Knight, Michael Cabanatuan

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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kevinryan_006_mac.jpg Attorneys Kevin Ryan and Bob Moore. Quasi-profile of Kevin Ryan, the former US Attorney who headed up the BALCO investigation. He's now in private practice, at the firm Allen Matkins, and teaming up with another lawyer (Bob Moore) to create a sports law group. We're doing a story about Ryan's take on BALCO, and touching on his new work with Moore. (cq) Kevin Ryan Bob Moore Photographed in, San Francisco, Ca, on 6/15/07. Photo by: Michael Macor/ The Chronicle less

kevinryan_006_mac.jpg Attorneys Kevin Ryan and Bob Moore. Quasi-profile of Kevin Ryan, the former US Attorney who headed up the BALCO investigation. He's now in private practice, at the firm Allen Matkins, and ... more

Ryan, 52, acted as a liaison between the mayor's office, the San Francisco Police Department and other criminal justice agencies and focused on lowering the homicide rate, curbing gang violence and ironing out the city's controversial sanctuary policy.

Ryan said everybody's asking him whether he's part of a "mass exodus" from Newsom's administration (several others have left in recent months, as well), but he told us he made the decision a few months ago that he'd be leaving by the end of the year.

"My departure really is, believe it or not, just kind of progressing independently, but coincidentally at the same time," he said, adding he feels he's accomplished his work because the homicide rate has markedly dropped this year and a new police chief is on board. "It's time to get out of the limelight."

He'll begin teaching a white-collar crime class at University of San Francisco on Jan. 10, and will consult and "practice law selectively." We asked if he'll continue blogging - he started a Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice blog a while back - and he said he actually has a bigger writing project in mind.

"A couple of people have asked me to consider writing a book," he said. "I have a lot to say, and I haven't said much."

Any tome that would discuss working for President Bush and Mayor Newsom sounds like a must-read to us.

- Heather Knight

Experiment extended: It looks like that six-week test of diverting private automobile traffic off a stretch of eastbound Market Street will continue indefinitely - and will probably expand from Eighth Street to 10th Street.

Under the test, private cars must turn right off of eastbound Market Street at Eighth and Sixth streets. Traffic officers direct cars at those two intersections until 7 p.m. Drivers who evade the cops, or ignore the signs, are subject to $167 citations.

The goal of the experiment is to see if the city can make the busy traffic corridor safer for pedestrians and bicyclists and less congested for the 12 Muni lines that cruise down Market.

Results so far are mixed, but Judson True, MTA spokesman, said they are encouraging enough to keep the experiment going.

Since the pilot program started Sept. 29, the average hourly traffic volume on Market east of Eighth Street decreased 54 percent. Further down Market, at Montgomery Street, after private cars are allowed onto the thoroughfare, the drop was just 5 percent. The impact on surrounding streets included a 15 percent rise in traffic on Mission Street, but Folsom Street saw increases and decreases.

Eastbound Muni buses experienced about a 50-second time savings on Market Street, and the portion of traffic comprised of bicyclists rose by about 15 percent. Because cars turning right from the center lane at Eighth Street endanger bike riders, the MTA is recommending the traffic diversion be moved to 10th Street, where that problem doesn't exist.

How long the experiment will last is not yet determined, said True, noting that it's a project of the mayor's office that's part of a plan to rejuvenate the rundown mid-Market area.

"We're working ... to determine the next steps of the broader effort to make Market Street a world-class street," True said.